Season slurpings

It's that time of the year again, when hairy crabs plump up and their shells fill up with tasty, oily roe, and our group of foodie buddies will gather up and pay a visit to our beloved Tien Heung Lau (天香樓 - 18C Austin Road, Kowloon) to feast on the beasts & other delicacies. THL is a rather nondescript and terribly old fashioned place, which you would walk past without noticing (and I did, several times, the day I first came to the place a couple of years ago...). The service is notoriously bad (they WILL switch off the lights at closing time to kick you out...), the decor (and the waiters...) have just been beamed up from another era, and yet the authentic and consistently awesome Shanghainese fare keeps us coming back over and over again. This Froggie had been looking forward to this bowl of noodles for (almost...) a year...

The highlight of the evening: the (very) long-awaited bowl of stir-fried hairy crab roe with noodles

Top it up with one or two spoonfuls of the traditional ginger & vinegar condiment, and happily slurp away. Nevermind the fragrant oil dripping on your chin... this is a truly awesome dish, and if you need only one reason to visit this restaurant at this time of the year, this is it.

As we had a rather large group of diners tonight, we were able to order and sample many other dishes. Some of us also ordered steamed hairy crab - I did not have one... too much hard work, why end up in "crab flavour" up to your elbows and struggle for half an hour when the delicacy can come already deshelled directly on top of your noodles ??

Pickled radish

Crunchy and nicely flavoured with spices, an excellent way to work up an appetite (if a year of anticipation wasn't quite enough already ...)

Chopped Indian aster and tofu

The seasoning contained some fragrant sesame oil and this was, as usual, delicious.

"Chinese spam"...

... as I jokingly refer to this dish (not sure what the actual name is, the place having obviously no English menus...), which is not doing it any justice, as this is so much better than spam. The chunky pieces of lean meat, fat and skin pressed together remind me of the French jambonneau both in terms of taste and texture, only that this had obviously been seasoned differently. The meat came with a side dip of vinegar and ginger, but I actually thought it tasted better on its own. Very delish. I munched my way through several pieces, as my fellow diners were all focusing on ...

... the slices of drunken pigeon.

This was as usual very good, with the fragrant wine keeping the meat moist and tender. Very nicely done.

Deep-fried freshwater eel, with a yummy brown sauce flavoured with garlic

Despite being deep-fried and crunchy on the outside, the eel had retained some of its stickiness inside (at least on the bigger pieces), and the sweet garlicky sauce complemented it very nicely. I would have loved some rice to mop up that sauce...

Deep-fried frog legs

Coated in a rather thick and crispy batter, these were nicely cooked and I sucked up every last piece of meat from the tiny bones. That was to be expected of a Froggie...

Smoked yellow croaker

Extremely fragrant (I would be curious to know what kind of wood/leaves are used to smoke the fish) and wonderfully yummy. The flesh was just cooked and very moist, and only mildly smokey, as most of the powerful smokiness was in the skin. Every single bit disappeared from the plate, heads, tails and all... A truly awesome dish.

Hairy crabs

Vinegar & ginger, a traditional condiment for hairy crab roe

Braised sea cucumber

I would concur with Lady Dyson 2000 that something was missing from this dish. The cucumber was full of collagen goodness, but the braising sauce was a bit weak in flavour.

Collagen once a day keeps wrinkles away (you wish, Froggie...)

Stir-fried rice cake with pork and bamboo shoots

Very delish. I particularly enjoyed the firm and bouncy texture of the rice cake.

Yes, we DID order something green... and actually ate it!!

Glutinous rice balls in fermented rice soup with assorted fruit

I just love this dessert. Sticky rice balls in a slightly sweet fermented rice soup, with bits of strawberry, banana and orange. I would have fought with Lady Dyson 2000 over a second bowl of this if I had not felt so full at this point.

I rolled out of the restaurant noticeably happier than I had walked in, and then proceeded to get a good hour of foot massage, as I couldn't possibly think of lying down in bed without first digesting a bit... and I am obviously already looking forward to next year's noodles ;-)